Thursday, the Senate voted to block a package of vehicle emissions regulations issued by California, including a highly controversial rule that would have banned the sale of gasoline-powered (aka real) cars by 2035. In the process, tears were shed, threats were issues, and knickers became tightly knotted by leftist Democrats out to cripple the US economy.
Only a month before leaving office, the headless chicken that was the regime of a demonstrably and provably demented Joe Biden (Jake Tapper Confirms Who Was Controlling Joe Biden, and It’s Absolutely Scandalous – RedState) approved a California regulation that banned the sale of new cars and trucks in California in 2035. This was a decision of earthshaking import. Given the size of its market, unilateral economic actions affect the entire country as businesses adjust their processes to accommodate California regulations. Making matters worse, 11 other states were in the process of enacting similar bans. All told, this would have reduced the market for new gasoline-powered automobiles in the US by 40%. This approval was an obviously malicious act by the outgoing EPA management. The EPA had been sitting on the approvals since 2022 but dumped this burning bag of ordure on the front porch of the Trump White House for political points.
The House teed up the action with a bipartisan vote of 246-164 to disapprove three EPA waivers granted to California: a “zero emissions” standard for trucks, a regulation that would have essentially banned heavy-duty off-road vehicles, and the 2035 ban on real cars and trucks.
When the resolution of disapproval arrived in the Senate, its fate was in question. The General Accounting Office had rendered a “legal opinion” (funny how that phrase has become synonymous with “anti-Trump mischief-making”) that a mere waiver of an existing law did not rise to the level of being a regulation that the mere collective vote of Congress could override. In this assertion, the GAO was joined by the Senate parliamentarian.
Because resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act need only a majority vote, they are some of the only legislation that can avoid a filibuster in the Senate. But the Government Accountability Office and the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian both advised senators that since the E.P.A. waivers were not executive branch rules, they did not qualify for the special filibuster-proof status usually bestowed on such resolutions.
Neither the GAO nor the parliamentarian has binding authority over the will of the Senate, but what Republicans wanted to avoid was the appearance of steamrolling the parliamentarian. This is where the solid leadership of South Dakota’s John Thune came into play in a clear contrast to the “failure theater” directed by Mitch McConnell whenever he was majority leader. Had Thune followed McConnell’s playbook, he would’ve made a mealy-mouthed speech about it being unfortunate that these horrible rules would take effect, but there was nothing that could be done unless you sent him more money to elect more GOP senators.
Thune decided to go around the bureaucratic obstacle. “What I didn’t want to do was vote to overturn the parliamentarian,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), “and with help from a lot of experts the leader came up with an approach that avoids that outcome, and I’m glad.”
Here is how it unfolded.
In response, Republicans on Wednesday argued that the situation was “novel” as Mr. Thune described it, allowing the Senate to establish its own course of action since no exact precedents existed. Republicans engineered the procedural sidestep to avoid having to overrule the parliamentarian, a vote that some of them were reluctant to cast because it smacked of an abuse of the rules and would feed Democratic claims of undermining the filibuster.
What Thune did was get a ruling from the floor that the situation was not as cut and dried as the GAO and parliamentarian had claimed and that the waivers did, indeed, fall under the provisions of the Congressional Review Act.
Thune and other Senate Republicans, however, argued that it should be a matter for the Senate, not the parliamentarian to decide.
Republican procedural experts say that it was common practice decades ago to refer difficult procedural questions to the Senate to decide as a body, instead of relying on the parliamentarian for advice.
First Thune raised a point of order that “points of order are in order under the Congressional Review Act” to allow the Senate to vote on the question of whether the waivers provided by the EPA are eligible for disapproval under the CRA.
Schumer made a motion to table Thune’s point of order, but it failed on a 46-52 vote.
Then Schumer appealed the ruling by the Senate’s presiding chair, who happened to be Capito, submitting the question of whether points of order are allowed under the CRA.
That appeal was expected to also fail on a party-line vote.
A Senate Republican source familiar with Thune’s strategy said he will then offer a point of order to make the resolution disapproving of California’s EV mandate eligible for fast-track consideration in the Senate.
With new facts established, the Senate rendered a bipartisan 51-44 vote (well, one Democrat, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, helped out) to send the resolution of disapproval to President Trump.
The Democrats cried foul.
“This Senate vote is illegal,” raged California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, beating his tiny fists of fury on the burned-out sod of mismanaged California [okay, I made the last part up]. “Republicans went around their own parliamentarian to defy decades of precedent. We won’t stand by as Trump Republicans make America smoggy again — undoing work that goes back to the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan — all while ceding our economic future to China.“
Chuck Schumer threatened to do the same when he returned to power.
“Today it’s all about California emission waivers. But tomorrow, the CRA could now be used to erase any policy from an agency that the Trump administration doesn’t like at a simple majority threshold,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday evening as he tried unsuccessfully to derail the vote. He argued that the CRA could subsequently be used to repeal any policies the White House — including future administrations — doesn’t support, including waivers related to Medicaid or reproductive health care. “Republicans should tread carefully today,” he said. “What goes around comes around.”
However, sane people knew the only reason the Democrats haven’t done this in the past, just like they didn’t get rid of the filibuster as they promised, was because they hadn’t encountered a situation where it was advantageous.
Now it’s up to President Trump to administer the coup de grace to another instance of overweening arrogance by Gavin Newsom’s regime and a corrupt Biden EPA.
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